Electric Light Orch - Don’t Bring Me Down

For the search engine: Electric Light Orchestra aka ELO - Don't Bring Me Down

This was ELO's highest-charting single in the US, peaking at #4 in 1979. It's formed around a drum loop taken from another song on the Discovery album ("On The Run") and slowed down. The guy on the Discovery album cover is a very young Brad Garrett, the meaningless word in the chorus is "Grroosss", and that weird sound at the end is the sound of the fire door to the studio slamming shut. So much trivia.

In a 2001 interview, Jeff Lynne commented on the song, "It's a great big galloping ball of distortion". I agree. It's never going to sound great. The various CDs that feature the song try to EQ the weirdness as best as they can, but it'll always sound a bit off.

The very old promo disc CBS Records Compact Disc Demonstration (1983) runs at 115.2 BPM throughout, and sounds a little dull, but only a little.

The early Japan-for-US mastering of Discovery, with matrix number 35DP-24, is ear-bleedingly bright, at least for "Don't Bring Me Down". It runs at 115.0 BPM throughout. Two others that also run at 115.0 BPM and sound similarly bright are:

• Telstar UK's 2-CD The Very Best Of (1989)
• EMI's 5-CD Pop Complete (1999)

Much better is Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 9 1979 (1990), which sounds the best out of everything I own for "Don't Bring Me Down". It runs at 115.3 BPM throughout. The same analog transfer is used for:

• Time-Life's Guitar Rock Vol. 2 1978-1979 (1993)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Soft Rock Vol. 9 Cool Night (2007; digitally exactly 1.13 dB louder)

Finally, one last new analog transfer, on the 2-CD Strange Magic ELO collection (1995), where it runs 115.8 BPM throughout. I don't like this one as much as the Time-Life mastering. Others that use the same analog transfer:

• Razor & Tie's 2-CD Super '70s (1995)
• Sony's 2-CD Pop Music The Modern Era 1976-1999 (1999)

There are perhaps hundreds of ELO compilations out there, and I don't know how those others sound. Overall, I really like Strange Magic, but not for this one song.

Edited by crapfromthepast

I've been singing "Bruce" instead of "Grroosss" for over
four decades. Very cool info indeed.

Santi Paradoa wrote: I've been singing "Bruce" instead of "Grroosss" for over four decades.

That's what I always heard too.

FWIW, I just checked a dozen masterings out in the wild, and have to agree that the Time-Life mastering is the best overall. I believe it was by Dennis Drake?

If you like the mastering of Led Zeppelin albums or Low-era Bowie, you might like the Discovery 1993 gold disc (ZK 64646). The mastering is not an authentic "ELO on LP" sound, and definitely not the sound of 1979, but the extra emphasis they gave to the drums & vocals is enjoyable in a 70s rock-radio kind of way.

A note: CD releases of this which are bright (have pre-
emphasis) in their mastering. If your player does not
decode pre-emphasis correctly, these discs will be very
bright sounding.